My Career Journey: Stepping Into The Freelance World

One of the special gifts that I had received from my employer on my first job!

Hi there! This is Farah Rahman, a freelance content writer. If you are here, it means that you must be curious about my career journey. So let's hear about it...

My Day Job

Like most other students, I followed the conventional path of completing my studies with top-notch academic records and later on, got a job in a multinational company.

My first job was in the banking industry. It had a highly structured organogram - lots of levels to go through even for a simple request and not to mention tons of manuals to read for almost every task. The environment was much different having a strict policy, designated workspace, etc.

Despite all of that, I enjoyed the intensive training programs within and outside the company. It was a multinational so I had the opportunity to work in a cross-cultural environment. Also, I had worked with team members who were sitting across the globe.

Later on, I shifted to the technology industry. Now, here the management practices were much focused on being flexible and adaptable to the changes needed to meet the company goals. The managers and team members used to change from project to project. Everyone seems to be on the same level, regardless of their designations. They had a fancy workspace and had to work in cross-functional teams across the globe even more!

Other than the fast-paced atmosphere, the work was much transparent not only to each other but also to other team members as well. They used to be encouraged to know how things are working and how they can be further improved. Plus, I wasn’t fixed to specific responsibilities but was an all-rounder, which I personally enjoyed a lot.

Every day was exciting! I had to learn and do something different. It felt like I was growing and developing my skills every day. This practice helped me to become an adaptable and flexible person. And, I really enjoyed the dynamic working style along with open-minded people. It led me to be the kind of team player that can plugin and play into teams having diverse members.

Just a Side Hustle…

When I shifted to the technology industry, it also led me to new opportunities. Among one of them was freelancing — which I had no intention to start. But, I still did as a side hustle along with my day job.

Initially, I was reached by the people who knew me from my professional network - Of course, I had announced through my social network that I'm interested in working remotely. Later on, the side hustle work boosted as my social engagement was increased due to professional commitments. I enjoyed going to events like guest speaker sessions, open discussion platforms, and workshops.

Some of the prominent events which I went to were:

• As a Guest Speaker at my university, PAF KIET.
• OpenMic session at The Nest I/O by WomenInTechPK community.
• International HR Summit Conference by BambooHR.
• #IamRemarkable Google workshop by WOWPK community.

After some time, I joined a bunch of authentic and reliable communities where I met many other freelancers and even collaborated with them on different projects. It helped me to enhance my own freelancing skills. I learned to monetize my skills based on my experience gained over the years. It’s thanks to them, I was able to explore my potential as a freelancer.

The Perks To Shift Into Freelancing…

When I was working as a freelancer, I realized that it lets me choose the kind of project which I want to do and at my pace — of course, there were set deadlines. But I was not pressurized or bound to do something or work with someone that I did not like — micromanagers (argh!).

Plus, I was able to work from anywhere. So in the future, if I wanted to travel, I only needed my mobile phone having Google Docs installed in it, an internet connection, and some ideas to work on.

While in my day job, I was confined to a place and fixed responsibilities. I used to inform my employers weeks before even for just two days’ leave and some of them would not even bother to approve it. And even if they do, they would definitely call me for some work and ruin my off-day (sigh!).

I also liked that freelancing is based on skills, experience or knowledge, and consistency towards work. It can get you a reasonable amount of money and build you an amazing professional network. I can start it at any stage of my career.

To freelance, I just need to have a genuine identity or profile, a set of in-demand skills, a portfolio featuring my best work, and some professional connections through social media platforms — LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, and even more.

Also, managing my work schedule and social media engagement promptly would help me to get leads. Plus, the testimonials or good notes from the clients would also help to get more interesting work from reliable clients.

Not All Time Joyous-Ride…

However, the freelance world has its own challenges. Finding professional clients, retaining them, making projects recurring, and landing on long term projects are a few of them.

So I became open to communication, approachable, and continuously trained myself. I invested an ample amount of time in learning new skills and market research to stay with trending money-earning skills.

Freelancing is about doing business on a serious note — I’m the sole owner of my success as well as my failure too. And over time I learned that in freelancing, there is no such word called failure. In either case, I was learning. That added up to my experience leading it to benefit me in the long term journey.

Final Call…

Both of the paths were demanding as it required not only to learn skills but also to keep practising those skills and get things done. Plus, my work-life balance went totally off. So, I had to make the final call.

So, I sat in a quiet place and narrowed down what actually made me thrive and grow from a long-term perspective. Freelance was something that I had started out of passion as a side hustle. But it felt like I am on a journey to explore, there is no limit to what I do on this path, and I can do that remotely.

While in my in-house day job, I was bound to specific responsibilities. And later on, it started to suffocate me as there was no further growth to it. I did repetitive work every day over the years. It felt like I was standing at a dead end. Plus, it kept me from letting things do remotely which from my point of view is the future of the industry I work for.

So I chose the path that made me explore my potential without any limits — Freelancing!

To Sum Up…

The process of leaving a well crafted idealized day job and shifting to freelancing, made me realize that I can create a new career path for myself at any time.

And today, I am glad that I made the right choice to freelance. I am able to write about experiences, share my practical knowledge, learn/grow with others and add value to the life of my readers. All of this… means a lot to me.

Now, I not only have to work for earning money but also enjoy what I do while experiencing the dynamics of the freelancing world!

Got a similar writing project? Feel free to drop an email at frfarahrahmanwrites@gmail.com or connect with me @frfarahrahman on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin or Medium.